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Services Marketing
Notes Self Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
10. If a firm offers the same services to all the consumers in the market, it is following
marketing.
11. If a service firm targets a group of consumers with Plan A and another group of consumers
with Plan B, it is following
marketing.
12. Concept of
marketing is a resultant product of undifferentiated marketing.
13.
marketing is sometimes also referred to as concentrated or focus marketing.
14. A niche market is
in size and consumers in the market have special needs
and wants that the service firm attempts to satisfy.
7.5 Market Targeting
The service marketer evaluates these groups and chooses those groups which it perceives it
could cater to with its available resources. If a service marketer chooses only one segment, then
it is focus or concentrated marketing, whereby his attention is on a single market, known as
a niche. If he chooses a few of the segments, then it is multi-segment strategies, where a series
of separate marketing activities is designed for different market segments. A service marketer
with deep pockets and other resources addresses himself to all the segments. The service marketer,
over the period has come to the realisation that no single offer can satisfy the whole market.
Niche marketing makes a firm use its limited resources optimally; the customers do not suffer
from any confusion about the ability of the firm to service them. But with niche strategy, a
service firm becomes vulnerable to powerful competitors coming in.
Example: Diners Club was the only player in the card business in the seventies and
early eighties, for a select customer segment. But it was soon overpowered by more powerful
players, till it was taken over by Citibank.
Multi-segment strategies are the prerogative of larger service firms, attempting to conquer
different segments through different marketing programmes. There is more scope for expansion
and growth with this strategy, with the firm reaping the benefits of economy of scale and
economy of scope. But it will make the service firm incur higher expenses and will require
higher expertise. There is the danger of getting spread too thinly, with the ensuing confusion of
the customers.
Self Assessment
State whether the following statements are true or false:
15. When the marketer chooses only one segment to target, it is focus marketing.
16. Niche marketing makes a firm use its limited resources optimally.
17. Targeting more than one segment is the least expensive option.
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